Nketiah’s celebration is embarrassing to Arsenal | OneFootball

Despite being 9th, 28 points behind top, 9 points off 4th, losing more home fixtures in the League then we have in decades, there are some gooners who refuse to admit we have gone backwards since Arsene Wenger left. I even saw one reader claim that Mikel Arteta has better tactics then the most successful manager in our history.

At this point I don’t know what else Arsenal can do to show the grass wasn’t greener.

Just when I thought though that we had already hit rock bottom I watched the celebrations after our equaliser against Fulham.

Despite a draw being as helpful as a loss in our already outside bid to qualify for Europe through the League, there was Eddie Nketiah with the audacity to put his ear to the crowd in irony, while Martinelli jumped on his shoulders and Matt Ryan (up for the corner) joined in with the congratulations.

Now I’ll give Ryan the benefit of the doubt, the keeper is on loan at Brighton where expectations should be different.

Martinelli is a teenager who grew up in South America who is too young to remember the days where Arsenal were so good, a point at home against a side 18th in the table is a negative.

As for Eddie? In that one moment he showed he doesn’t have the mentality to help this club get back to their previous levels.

He recently did an interview bemoaning his lack of playing time, so when he scored a tap in, he made it all about himself.

He has his goal to show his friends and family, to watch on Match of The Day. The teams plight. Secondary.

It again shows the lack of leaders in the dressing room.

Our boss talks about standards and not accepting anyone who doesn’t follow them.

Well a Tony Adams, Vieira, Henry, etc, would be embarrassed by our position with 6 games to go. They wouldn’t be happy about a late goal which will put us in 11th if Leeds and Villa win their games in hand.

Forget about the legends.

How much grief did the likes of Walcott, Giroud, BFG, etc have to handle for ‘only finishing 4th‘?

We have gone from ‘only finishing 4th’ to our striker celebrating a draw against a side who will get relegated.

Like the FA Cup, the Europa League is in danger of papering over the cracks. I will breathe a sigh of relief if we lift that trophy because the ends justify the means.

Yet this idea that they will be legends? They are on course to be one of our worst squads in Prem history. You can’t judge a team on the short term of a knock out tournament, you need to look at the long term of the League and say it’s not okay.

The scary part of this weekend, youngsters are thinking it is. Young men who are told how great they are, despite struggling to be in the top half of the table (Smith Rowe and Saka were poor). That tells me the youth are not being shown the standards.

Which means that maybe the manager isn’t being shown the standards because maybe our owner simply doesn’t care where we finish, as he still gets a portion of TV rights worth billions.

Even as recently as Emery’s final home match, we equalised in stoppage time and Laca didn’t smile, didn’t have his peers jumping all over him. He trudged back with his head down. At full time the Emirates booed having barely cheered the equaliser.

Again how have we not gone backwards?

Before you say; ‘Dan’s negative’, ask yourself this.

If that was Man United or Chelsea, in 9th in April and their striker equalised against a team in the bottom three, would you mock him if he essentially ‘ssh’ed the crowd?

The fact is the expectation of those clubs would mean they would have ran back to the half way line.

Dan Smith